An Afghan soldier-turned-insurgent who was celebrated by the Taliban for killing a US soldier in Afghanistan has been killed in a raid, the US-led international coalition said.

Nato identified the insurgent as Mahmood and said that he and an accomplice, identified only as Rashid, died in last Wednesday's operation in eastern Kunar province's Ghaziabad district.

No other details were provided.

Mahmood is thought responsible for the killing of US Army First Lieutenant Alejo Thompson, who died on May 11 last year during an insider attack on a base in Kunar.

The attack also wounded two American soldiers. Mahmood, in his early twenties and who went only by one name, later fled.

Lieutenant Thompson, 30, a father of two, was from Yuma, Arizona. He was based at Ford Carson, Colorado.

"Afghan and coalition forces confirmed today the death of the two Taliban insider attack facilitators, Mahmood and Rashid, during a security operation in Ghaziabad district, Kunar province, Wednesday," the coalition said in a statement.

"Mahmood was responsible for the death of one American service member during the May 11, 2012, insider attack in Kunar province."

It added that "Rashid was Mahmood's associate and a former Afghan National Army soldier who facilitated and assisted with insider attack planning and execution."

After he fled, a man named Mahmood was highlighted in a Taliban video that showed him being welcomed as a hero while entering an insurgent camp.

In the video, he was shown in his Afghan army uniform, his US-made assault rifle, and with garlands of flowers around his neck.

The Taliban claimed he had defected to their side.

Killings by uniformed Afghans of foreign soldiers and civilians rose dramatically last year.

In some cases, militants have donned Afghan army or police uniforms to attack foreign troops. And a number of attacks have also been carried out by members of Afghan security forces against their own comrades.

Insider attacks have dropped sharply after Nato forces took steps to mitigate them, including having armed "guardian angels" looking over troops as they sleep.

There has been only one insider attack so far this year, the January 7 killing of a British soldier in southern Helmand province by a man in an Afghan army uniform.